Brother Marquez, member of Rap Group 2 Live Crew, has passed away

Brother Marquez, the rapper and member of the Miami hip-hop group 2 Live Crew, whose sexually explicit lyrics sparked debates about race and artistic freedom in the 1980s and 1990s, has died.

And it was his death Announce on 2 Live Crew’s social media accounts Monday night. The publications did not explain the cause or location of death. Sources differ on whether he was 57 or 58 years old.

2 Live Crew was formed in 1984, and brother Marquez, born Mark Ross in Rochester, New York, joined after the group moved from California to Miami to replace another departed member. He became part of their most popular lineup alongside Christopher Wong Won (Fresh Kid Ice); The group’s leader, Luther Campbell (Luke Skywalker); and David Hobbs (Mr. Mix).

He was the manager of the group’s debut album, “The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are”, and on A.J Interview 2022 He said he wrote or co-wrote some of the group’s most famous songs.

“I wasn’t really comfortable with all the profanity we were putting in the music,” Mr. Ross recalled, in a 2022 interview with Vlad TV, “but when you see the reaction in the community and everyone loves it, you know, you kind of go with it.”

In 1990, a Florida court deemed the band’s third album, “As Nasty as They Wanna Be,” legally obscene – and therefore illegal to sell. It was the first album in US history to receive this distinction.

That year, Mr. Ross, Mr. Wong Won and Mr. Campbell were charged with misdemeanor obscenity for performing the album’s songs in a nightclub after an undercover police officer recorded their performance. They faced the possibility of a year in prison and fines of up to $1,000.

During their trial on obscenity charges, prosecutors said their song lyrics included graphic descriptions of sexual intercourse and simulations of “deviant sexual acts.” But lawyers for 2 Live Crew said the group’s performance should be understood in the context of hip-hop, and that the lyrics “can have artistic value when you have an understanding, when they are actually decoded.”

The jury eventually found the three men not guilty, and in 1992, the court of appeal overturned the obscenity ruling on their album.

The group faced another lawsuit over its 1989 song “Pretty Woman,” which was a rap version of Roy Orbison’s rock song “Oh, Pretty Woman.” Acuff-Rose Music, which owns the copyright to Mr. Orbison’s song, sued 2 Live Crew for copyright infringement. After a years-long legal battle, the US Supreme Court eventually ruled in favor of 2 Live Crew, setting a legal precedent by creating a safety zone for parody within federal copyright law.

Reflecting on the legacy of 2 Live Crew in 2021 interview With the Heat Seekers magazine, Mr. Ross said, “I can take that to my grave, that we made a difference.”